Midwest in the Making: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway, a well-known journalist and novelist became a legend in American literature in the 20th century through his extensive global travels, but it is the Midwest where he had his start.

Photo from: http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/images/hemingway_pic

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois on the 21^st of July, 1899. He was hired as a journalist for The Kansas City Star after graduating high school.  While working for the newspaper in early 1918, he volunteered for the Red Cross and was shipped off to the Italian Front where he was severely wounded. He returned home America only to fall in love and go back to Paris. He received a Nobel Prize for Literature in the October of 1954 while in Cuba. After his experience in various jobs and locations, he finally returned and settled in Ketchum, Idaho before he died.

Ernest Hemingway’s legacy is the manner in which he changed writing. Hemingway’s introduced what is called the Iceberg Theory. Just as the name suggests, this theory explains that only some facts are written but a deeper meaning is lurking out of sight.  The Iceberg Theory is unmistakable in Hemingway’s writing.

Photo from: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3137/2745237868_c236e1d719

Besides his contribution to literature, Hemingway has been immortalized in many unusual ways. A minor planet discovered in 1978 is now called 3556 Hemingway.

The United States Postal Service even issued stamps in 1989 that honored Hemingway. Hemingway’s influence on pop-culture has also been tremendous. Hemingway has been represented in bars, restaurants as well as movies.

Hemingway is considered one of the more influential writers in American literature, and his works may have spread across the globe, but it comforting to think that his roots began in the soil of the Midwest.